


doctor, what can i do?

by aceofdiamonds



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, I think?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-13
Updated: 2013-09-13
Packaged: 2017-12-26 10:17:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/964788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofdiamonds/pseuds/aceofdiamonds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis sighs. “Band meeting, lads!” He claps his hands.</p><p>This time Zayn looks up from his phone, “You do know we haven’t been a band for two years, don’t you? Or did you hit your head again?”</p><p> </p><p>or; louis and harry have a very important announcement</p>
            </blockquote>





	doctor, what can i do?

**Author's Note:**

> don't know what this is. don't know what i'm doing. i'm putting off writing actual fic, that's what

"Band meeting!"

No one moves. Harry shifts onto his other foot.

Louis sighs. “Band meeting, lads!” He claps his hands.

This time Zayn looks up from his phone, “You do know we haven’t been a band for two years, don’t you? Or did you hit your head again?”

“Technically we’re still a band,” Harry points out, nudging Louis forward until they’re standing in front of the other three. Harry catches the frown on Liam’s face when they stand blocking the TV; he shifts a couple of inches to the side. Louis pulls him back. “We’re just having a hiatus or whatever.”

“Whatever,” Niall mumbles. He might be asleep. Louis claps his hands in his face which jolts him awake. He blinks sleepily. “What do you want?”

“ _We_ ,” Louis gestures between him and Harry, “would like a group discussion.”

Zayn pockets his phone, nudging Liam and Niall with a look that clearly says _if we pay attention they’ll go away quicker,_ and while it’s not ideal it’s effective.

“Right.” Louis swallows. He nods. “Right. Just remember that we will always love you and we will never hurt you intentionally.”

Liam leans forward, his face bent into a frown. Good. They're being taken seriously now, even if the whole thing is ridiculous.

"We've thought about this for a while and it's reached the stage where it's now unavoidable to keep it a secret. It's not been fair to keep you in the dark but we just wanted to make sure everything was steady before telling people."

"Is this you two coming out?" Zayn asks, arching an eyebrow. "Does Eleanor know?"

"No, we're not coming out," Louis rolls his eyes. "And yes, El does know most of it. It's hard to keep the noise down."

Niall opens his mouth then shuts it again quickly when Zayn elbows him.

Harry laughs, covering his mouth with his hand. “Lou, spit it out.”

“You tell them then,” he says, a hand on his hip. " _You_ break the news."

“Get on with it,” Zayn groans, dropping his head in his hands, world weary. Niall pats him on the back.

“It’s not you, it’s us,” Louis says, dissolving into giggles, fingers digging into Harry’s arm to keep himself up.

“Lou?” Liam asks uncertainly. “Are you high? Because while you’re perfectly free to do what you want -- it’s half ten in the morning and --”

“Louis and I have sort of formed a band and we have songs and we want to go public with it but we wanted your blessing first," Harry says finally.

After all the build-up and tears the reaction is anticlimactic. Harry can tell Louis is disappointed.

“Oh,” Niall says. “Cool, what kind of band is it?”

“Band’s a bit of an overstatement,” Louis says, dropping into Liam’s lap and wrapping his arms round his neck. “I play the guitar and Harry sings. We’re pretty great.”

“That’s great, guys,” Liam beams at Harry over Louis’s head, squeezing Louis’s waist. “You totally have our blessing; not that you really needed it.”

“We thought it’d be nicer if we asked,” Harry says, flopping on top of Niall and Zayn, his head bumping against Louis’s. “So you didn’t open the papers and suddenly see us at number one.”

“And then we would have to deal with the tears and anguish, all of you wondering why we left you,” Louis sighs, throwing his head back with a hand to his forehead. “But we’re not, okay?” he says. He sits up and reaches over to push his hand through Zayn’s hair, grinning when Zayn bats his hand away with a groan. “We’re not abandoning you at all; we’re just up for some experimentin’.”

"Is El up for some experimenting too?" Niall snorts.

"Shut up, Niall."

"That'll be a no then?" Niall mutters into Zayn's shoulder. Zayn huffs a laugh that makes Harry's curls lift.

"So how long's this been going on?" Liam asks.

Harry scrunches his nose at Louis who sticks out his tongue back, remembering the night at Harry's with all the beer and then the guitar in the corner and Louis knowing more songs than he thought he did, Harry filling in the gaps in the lyrics when Louis had to stop to concentrate on his chords.

It had progressed into sober sessions with Louis cross-legged on the floor with the guitar resting on his lap, Harry wandering around him in a circle, their voices mingling every so often.

And then, on pages scattered around Harry’s flat, words had appeared, some written by Louis, some by Harry, and a feeling similar to the one they both had on X Factor, the tentative possibility of something special had danced in the air around them, waiting for them to reach out and grab it. 

“A while,” they say, almost simultaneously.

“We’re sorry about not telling you before.”

“Yeah.” Harry shifts so he can grab Niall and Liam’s hands, curling his arm around Louis’s waist and his knee bracketing Zayn’s. He talks into the space between Liam and Louis. “We didn’t expect anything to really come of it, but now, uh, we’ve spoken to a couple of labels -- and there’s talk of an EP.”

“Wow, that’s great, lads!” Niall says, finally looking awake at the other end of the couch. He grins at them both, his smile wide and genuine. “Proud of you.”

“Me too.” Liam nods, his eyes crinkling at the corners and it’s times like this, when one, or two here, of them is worried or nervous or does something worthy of a hug and a well done, that maybe the Daddy Direction nickname rings true.

“And, guys, stop apologising. We support you 100%, we always want the best for you, we love you no matter what,” Zayn rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling too. He’s happy for them. “Whatever the cliche is, we feel it.”

“I love you _loads_ , Zayn Malik,” Louis declares, launching himself off Liam and onto Harry so he can kiss Zayn loudly on the cheek.

“Your autographed album’s on the way,” Harry promises, muffled under Louis’s arm.

“You got a name?”

“Well, _I_ wanted Aqua but Harry refused on the ridiculous grounds that --”

“-- that’s already a group.” Zayn finishes. Harry’s head pops out from under Louis to throw him a grateful look.

“Are they still together?” Liam asks, frown burrowed like this deserves serious thought.

“Dunno, man, when was their last song?”

“On it,” Niall mumbles, pulling his phone from his pocket. Louis whistles Dr Jones while they wait. “Shit Internet here -- got it! “The group released two albums: Aquarium in 1997 and Aquarius in 2000, before splitting up in July 2001.””

“Ha!” Louis crows triumphantly. “So, technically, we could be called that, right? Right?”

“Yeah, but we’re not. We’re Sparky’s Kicks.”

“Where’d you get that from?” Zayn hates to be the one to ask but someone has to.

“It sounds cool.”

“It’s spunky! Like us. Or so Nick Grimshaw says,” Louis says, frowning slightly like he’s proud of the spunky comment but doesn’t want to listen to anything Grimmy says.

“Hey imagine you become world famous and sell out stadiums and have your own dolls and your own film and --”

Louis pushes his fingers into Niall’s mouth, silencing him, and secretly hopes that they get nowhere near that success because One Direction was special in its own insane, unbelievable, punch yourself in the face every day to check you’re not dreaming way and this, this little thing on the side just him and Harry, is different and quietly magical and Louis wants to keep it that way - quiet and magical and his and Harry’s.

 

**Author's Note:**

> my love for dr jones runs deep


End file.
